A Thorn In My Side
by Chaanoua
Summary: Specter's escaped again. This time he has new goals besides world domination; his eye must be set on eliminating the young adults whom have been ruining his plans since their basic childhood. Jake and Spike are still not talking, and the Professor has had it with these situations. How will Specter be-rid of the everlasting thorns in his side? And can friendship be rebuilt?
1. Chapter 1

It had been weeks, _weeks. _Weeks since Specter had been freed from this prison of human design. Freedom tasted sweet, and revenge would too. The albino had plans, big plans. They mostly focused on getting rid of the ape catchers themselves rather than world domination. He couldn't pull off a plot if they were in his way, and that was basis for them to be removed from the situation entirely.

First, however, he'd need to get away from this facility. After the whole thing concerning the Mercury bomb and him, Specter was locked away in a maximum security cell. This cell was like a large box, created out of shield generators formed around him like a cube; the cube structure derived him of his abilities. However, for the purposes of finding what went wrong with the original peak point helmet, the scientists working the laboratory had left him with his advanced helmet, albeit suppressed by the fields around him.

There was no way to open the cell from the inside, and everything was controlled in a control room by a computer terminal that he'd never reach. Thankfully, Specter hadn't gone down the last time without a plan; during the events of the bomb threat the ape had built himself a substantial amount of probes, hidden deep within the confines of the earth. The only way to activate these drones was through a special helmet signature, which could only be sent at full power. Coincidentally, today would've been the day the staff left the fields up but unstressed the albino's abilities; this small flaw in their testing designs would allow him to escape.

A small team of ape professionals approached Specter's cell, check-board in hand as well as special hand held equipment to take proper notes of his behavior via data input. The team started to hook up the much larger computers, capable of taking information the hand held ones couldn't. The whole time the only reaction they got out of the white spider monkey was his ever lasting smirk of arrogance.

"What's he so happy about?" A dark haired professor asked another scientists as they connected tubes to a computer. The other shrugged "I don't know but that expression gets on my nerves. Always so damn smug."

A hiss indicated that the computers and the cell were now linked, and the hum of generators starting up filled the room. Specter could feel it even now, his helmet being allowed to reach full power, uninhibited by the machines. Silently, the albino's homing beacon activated, a snicker escaping his throat.

"Status?" The head researcher requested, a middle aged female of American ethnicity, dark red hair and what appeared to be a small scar under her lip.

"Everything's normal," replied another scientist, female as well but darker skinned with black hair; she was naturally Japanese, and fresh out of college. "We can proceed."

_Crash!_

The researchers all brought up their arms to shield themselves as something caused an impact in the ceiling, allowing debris to shower down upon them. Three octopus like drones hovered down through the giant hole, metallic tendrils that ended in grip claws flowing. Specter crossed his arms, looking at the researchers as they regained their bearings.

"What the heck are those?" Asked the Japanese one.

Before the others could answer, the drone brought down its metal claw on one of the generators of Specter's cubical cell, exerting enough force to break it; the metal component simply broke and fell off, nothing more than dented metal at this point. Specter watched gloriously as the energy around him dissipated, his concealment was at an end.

"We need security!" The head researcher yelled over the radio, desperate to get the simian re-contained. The three drones quickly went to work on dealing with the researchers, sparing them from death but leaving all of them sprawled out on the floor, knocked out.

"I told you guys, I never lose." Specter stated, sadistically watching the carnage unfold. The albino was now free to leave the facility, moreover he didn't wish to be intercepted by guards. Levitating himself, Specter quickly flew out through the hole the drones created; the drones themselves staying behind as a surprise for the guards that would show up any minute.

He had done it, again. Escaping from the humans was always so easy! "They _really _need to up their game if they think they can contain someone as god-like as myself." He commented aloud, waiting until he had traveled far enough to be sure he was untraceable and couldn't be found.

"All I need to do is create a base of operations," he thought, crossing his arms in the air as he continued to hover; "then I can deal with those idiots myself." Concluding his course of actions, the albino projected himself through the evening sky until he was no where to be seen.

_Ring ring._

_Ring ring_

_Ring ring_

Doctor Ozel opened his eyes slowly, the sound of the insistent phone waking him from his precious rest. The elderly man was now close to 76, and quite clearly would run better throughout the day with a full night sleep. However, the ringing was so loud there was no ignoring it. Sighing, he crawled out of bed, wearing his green pajamas.

"Oh... Who could it be at this hour?" He questioned rhetorically, rubbing his head in frustration whilst walking to the phone. Getting a glimpse of the clock, the Professor saw it was about twelve in the morning -_midnight. _

"Hello?" He asked sheepishly, raising the phone to his head.

"Doctor Ozel, it's an emergency." Replied another voice.

"Who is this?"

"It's the research team you handed Specter and the helmets over to. He's escaped again."

Ozel sighed, feeling like throwing the phone in frustration. How does that monkey keep doing this?

"How did he get away _this _time?" Ozel asked, a hint of accusation in his tone.

"We were running a test to see the effects of the helmet on Specter's brain at full power. It seems he had some sort of homing device embedded in the helmet that we didn't catch, and it signaled robots."

"Was anyone hurt?" The Professor asked, worried about those who had encountered the breakout firsthand.

"The researchers had mild injuries, the drones blew themselves up when the security team arrived. Besides some shrapnel in their legs and arms, no one is dead."

"Thank god."

"We just thought we'd inform you. No action on your part is needed."

"Alright, thank you."

After a few seconds, the phone began playing the dial tone as the other person had hung up,. Silently, the Professor thought about how this could be happening _**again**_. He couldn't get involved, not this time. The situations his helmets and inventions had caused was enough to guilt trip him out of the simian research team entirely; however it seemed that every time this sort of thing occurred everybody always insisted on including him. Just once, the ex researcher would've liked to be left unaware to what the hell was going on.

"Here we go again..." He murmured, head pounding.

Where could Specter have gone off to this time? What could he be planning. Without a guess in the world the only thing the Professor could come to a endpoint to was they'd find out eventually.


	2. Chapter 2

Specter had been planning this scheme since he was captured and imprisoned, a plot that would drown out the ape catcher's influence in his life... permanently. It was beyond the albino's mind originally to strike down his foes, as doing something of the sort would give way to his human emotions. He attempted to do the opposite by turning them into servants but Jake came along and ruined that. Jake of all people, the side kick, the begrudged lover boy of some old man's daughter had defeated him and stopped his plot to blow up the earth. Unacceptable.

"If I am to ever win, these people must be removed. Otherwise, I will always be the loser." He stated to himself aloud, sitting in his hover chair that he rebuilt some time ago, red and blue just like his first chair was. Resting against the back board of his throne, he rested a cheek on his knuckles. He had yet to break the monkeys out of the park, as doing so would send a signal flare that would have every ape catcher on his tracks. Not that he probably didn't already have someone looking for him. Clearing his throat he leaned forward, draping his arms over his knees, causing the bang of his hair to droop down for a second, letting his other eye be visible for a few moments. "Stealth is on my side, I'd best begin work." He commented, before guiding his throne over to a terminal workstation...

Spike and Jake were still not speaking, even now, in the same room with each other, they refused to even give one another a glance. Natalie sat next to Jake now, being his girlfriend even if he was a little younger than she was. She could feel the tension between the two, like a bungee cord having been stretched out to its near breaking point, requiring only pressure to snap -and she felt like that pressure.

"I wonder why the Professor called us here," Spike asked, breaking the silence. Being in the waiting lounge of the Professor's lab, waiting. None of them were given any details about being asked to come, just the request itself over the phone this morning. When the doors finally did hiss and parted from each other allowing the old man dressed in white and green to step out of his lab, Ozel frowned and bowed his head; "The reason I brought you all here today is because I got reports that Specter escaped again the other night." Every last one of the others groaned in frustration. "How did he escape from a government prison?" Jake asked frantically in disbelief. "They tried to run a diagnostic test with a confiscated peak point helmet, he used it to summon robots that broke him out." Natalie could feel her eyes about to water, not this again. Specter was dangerous, more so considering his last plan was purely with lethal intention. What would he do next? Another bomb?

"I'm not going to get involved this time." Ozel explained, looking disappointed in himself for this resolution that he had to keep. "I would recommend you do so too." Spike stood up, clenching his fist in anger, "and what if Specter does something horrible?" The professor turned to the red and yellow haired boy and shrugged, "The government did this, they can take care of it." The three young adults all wanted to protest against the idea of not getting involved, but they did see that the Professor was right in a way. The Professor had stopped all simian research, discarded the helmets, and has been focusing primarily on time travel ever since, the Government could have avoided trying to copy Ozel's research, but instead they allowed their worst enemy to escape. "You're right... We shouldn't clean up this mess, we didn't make it." Jake replied, hoping that Natalie and even Spike would agree. "I suppose," replied Spike while Natalie just simply nodded.

The Professor wiped some sweat off of his brow, a forced smile spreading on his lips, "Care to come see the Time Machine Mark 2?"

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**Sorry for the late chapter, never intended for it to take this long but due to a large amount of RP's I had going I just needed a break; now I feel the urge to write again and what better than to continue my sequel to Ape Escape 4: Monkey Madness that also fills the holes left by Operation: Raid. Read and Review and expect a new chapter soon!**


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